I Went Gently and I Did Not Stay
by Silver Eternity
Summary: If Trafalgar Law thought anything like death would be able to stop his protector and guardian from doing everything possible to keep him alive, he underestimated the man who loved him more than life. And Death wasn't allowed to have Law; not yet, not like this, not now. He wouldn't stand for it.
1. Death Cannot Have You, Trafalgar Law

There isn't much time. Cora knows it, because he's done this before, and he knows the exact number of seconds he has, through trial and error, to make sure this is not the end for his boy. That this is not the thing that kills him, that Law is not another notch in the belt of this low-life scum that thinks he can take down a _shichibukai_ just because he's young and a little too full of himself for his own good.

He only has so many of these seconds, and he must use them wisely as he gathers his son up to his chest and holds him, carrying him down, down, back to his body where this soul belongs for a while yet. It's not his time, Cora refuses. Outright refuses, he can fix this. He will fix this.

Law is crying. He knows this familiar embrace, this warmth beyond words and the heavy, big hands that hold on to his shoulders like they're never going to let go and he can't stop the tears. How could he? He knows what Cora is doing. He knows exactly what his guardian is up to: just like back then, he is ensuring Law lives. Even if it's against his will.

They stand on the ground, both of them looking at the shell, Law's shell, where it lays covered in the snow that is flurrying around, most of the doctor's heat leeched away in his fight with the bounty hunter that took him down; none of it has melted and it's going to be a bitch once the body fires back up to life and heat. They are both standing in front of this body with the cruel gut shot in it, with the sliced shoulder that got lucky and nicked an artery, with his own Kikoku snarling her agonized fury as she rages from where the enemy plunged her into her own master's leg to pin him in place.

All it will take is one push and the seconds are ticking away.

Cora pulls Kikoku out- that many seconds gone, but she is ready to leap to her Master's aid again as the tears stream thicker down Law's cheeks, steam wafting from the heat of his pain and his grief in the cool air.

Precious seconds, less than a handful left and the soul will never be able to rejoin the housing. Fifteen. Thirteen. He still doesn't know what to say, wishes he could explain, apologize-

Ten. Nine. Eight.

"I'm always with you, Law," is what bursts from his mouth, desperate and counting and knowing he is not selfish enough to let his boy stay. Not this soon. No.

"I love you."

A hard push, just like the harsh hands that had stuffed a devil fruit, whole, into a confused child's mouth and made him swallow, and Law comes awake with a howl of pain and rage as he rises up and the whole island knows his fury when he screams _"ROOM!_ " and Kikoku drinks deep.

In the imprint he left, there in the bloodstained snow, all that remains of the whole thing is a heart shape, hollow in the center as though drawn with fingers, like paint. It lies right in the center of where Law's back had been, where his pirate symbol rested, and it was the only spot not utterly soaked with the surgeon's blood, spanning almost eight inches square. It is remarkable such a white space could exist when a man bled to death there not long ago, but there is no one there to see it, and it is soon covered by the falling snow, fat flakes blotting out the shape and hiding the grisly stain until all is erased.


	2. Carelessness Will Not Kill You, Law

Law got more reckless. A lot more reckless. It was most alarming to his silent guardian: he was still too new a Shichibukai, and there were more than just bounty hunters looking to topple him for one reason or another. But now, he had no reason to fear dying. If anything, being brought back to life had made him more determined to die!

Cora hadn't counted on that. He hadn't counted on that at all.

He hovered when Law went to Warlord meetings, fretted when he outright challenged the Navy officers, and followed in his wake when he went plunging into crowds of pirates, protected by nothing but his Room and his blade. Kikoku was thrilled, having quite the time in these slaughters, but Cora saw the wounds he took from these headlong rushes.

Saw how Law let them linger, almost _disappointed_ when he was still alive after the battles, how he took his time stitching himself up and almost never giving himself blood transfusions. It made him so much weaker between rounds of fighting.

Cora was afraid that was the point.

"You can't keep doing this," he spoke to Law as he laid awake at night, poking masochistically at his wounds. Law didn't react—he couldn't hear him, of course. "People can't come back to life an infinite number of times. You only get three shots to live your life, Law. I can only bring you back once more. Don't you understand? Can't you feel it?"

Law turned over, and in frustration, Cora stormed out through the wall. He couldn't affect physical things, not even in a ghostly, poltergiesty way, so there was no way to tell Law he was there. But Law probably knew. He must know Cora would never leave him alone. He loved him too much.

That didn't mean it didn't make Cora's long-stopped heart lurch to see Law throw himself straight at someone twice his size and a great deal stronger than him.

He may need to have a word with someone about getting a letter to his young idiot…

* * *

"It has been too long, Brother."


	3. Sometimes, an Intermediary is Required

_"Do you...think he'll believe you?"_

 _"Does it matter if he does?"_

* * *

When the bird lands on his railing, somehow knowing where and when his submarine would surface, Law knows who sent it even before he sees the bright pink band on it's leg with a dark, smiling logo. He ignores it, taking in the fresh air after several weeks submerged. His crew is restless, and so is he.

The bird's presence promises excitement, but Law can hear a humming in his blood and knows that would be too exciting. Much too exciting. why is it even here?

The bird, for her part, is not impressed by the hard stare leveled at her, and ignores it just as she ignores the dark Captain's attempts to shoo her off. She swats his sword aside when he draws it, and scuttles along the railing just out of his reach when he gives up and actively tries chasing her. She has a job to do, and all the time she needs to get it done. She can do this all day. She could do this all _week_.

Law goes back to ignoring the bird and succeeds, instead interacting with his crew and keeping them in line and from killing each other as tensions break and come to a head, alternately, from the rush to get out into open air. He's so successful at ignoring the bird, he misses when it disappears. Though it lingers in the back of his mind, a half-solved mystery, he's happy to brush it aside.

it doesn't come up again until they're a thousand meters below the surface and on their way to the next island with fresh air slowly turning stale in their lungs, and then there is nowhere he can run fast enough when Sachi hands him a sealed envelope saying it's addressed to him. There is nowhere he can run, but he does anyway. To his room, where the lights are dim and no one who looks to him to lead can hear the rasp in his breathing as he stares at the spidery scrawl of his name, sealed with the Royal Signet of Dressrosa.

He has to read it. His crew will want to know. _He_ wants to know.

It must have something to do with what happened on that cold little island, so like and yet unlike Swallow Island. It must have to do with the last time he came within a fingernail's breadth of death, so much more extreme than the slow, careful dance he has been doing since. Compared to what has happened to him on small winter-torn islands, these have been mere flirtations. A thousand hearts, in neat little cubes, mailed to the Marines in boxes, a thousand battles and he has not come close like he did then.

He hasn't been warm since Cora-san took him in his bright, shining arms and thrust him back into his body with the most unkind parting words he could have given. How could he leave him, how could he force him to live without him? He loved him too much to be happy here on this earth.

Crew not withstanding.

But he was safe under the water, insulated in cool blue, and he needed to know. He popped the seal with his thumb and pulled free the page inside, more of that familiar, spidery, achingly beautiful script, formed just a few sentences in the center of the page. It was unlike him, the man he knew wrote this letter, to be so... short. He did prefer his long, wending speeches, and even before he read it he got the feeling of a brusque reprimand that Law had always known as disappointment. A silent 'you can do better'.

Then he read it, and the paper slid from numb fingers, gray eyes staring sightlessly at the bedroom wall.

As clearly as if the man himself stood looming before him, the terse letter repeated itself again and again and again within his head, chasing itself in endless circles that had Trafalgar Law, Shichibukai, Surgeon of Death, curling into a ball and sobbing uncontrollably against his knees.

 _My little brother informs his charge that no man may have more than three chances to live to old age._

 _Stop trying to waste your second chance at it just to see him again._

 _I could not have devised a worse torture for Rocinante; well done, Trafalgar Law._


	4. Nope, He's Still That Reckless

Law doesn't know what to tell his crew, so he tells them nothing. They don't press him- they are family, and they know very well there are some things in his past he can't talk about.

It doesn't stop them from wondering, of course. If maybe it's his past that's come back to bite him, come knocking on the door. They let him keep his secrets and don't think on it too hard.

They come to regret that when, at the next port they dock at, their Captain disappears. They aren't forwarded any location, they're not given any standing orders, not even a note telling them not to worry and they are left at a loss. No one can say what Law expects: will he be looking at islands further down the chain when he comes back, or will he want to find them exactly where he left them? Not even the first mate can offer any guesses that are any more sure than any other suggestion.

It wouldn't matter what they chose, ultimately. Law had made a long-distance denden line to find them when he was done. If he survived what he was going to do. He half expected he wouldn't, and wasn't sure how he felt about that being a real possibility. Law wasn't sure of anything, at this juncture, except that he could hold onto six solid, true facts.

Number one: Cora-san was out there, somewhere, outside of Law's mortal perceptions.

Number two: Cora-san could communicate with his brother, somehow. He doubted that _that man_ had to die in order to do so, so perhaps it was something along the lines of a twin-bond? But that was not a fact, merely an unsubstantiated theory.

Number three: _That man_ was invested enough in his dead twin's affairs he was willing, either with or without threat or coaxing, to do things in his stead. Even something as minor as sending a letter by sea-bird meant effort put forth by _that man_ and he did nothing that wasn't in his own interests without compelling reason of some sort.

Number Four: Cora-san was watching him. Had been watching him, since he'd brought him forcefully back to life.

Number five: Somehow, there were rules to how many times Cora-san could bring him back from death. That number was apparently twice, to give him "three chances" to live his life.

Number six: He needed to see _that man_ in person. Like it or not. Even if it got him killed. There was a way to talk to Cora-san that didn't involve dying, and even if it was the most dangerous thing he'd ever done in his life, he needed to see if there was any way he could communicate with Cora-san as well.

* * *

 _"Oh, just look at your little protege! Looks like he's come to settle a few things in **person**."_

 _"Oh my g- he's done WHAT?!"_

 _"See for yourself, dear brother. Just look out the window."_

 _"...you know, if I wasn't so bent on keeping that kid alive, I'd **kill him myself.** "_


	5. It's Family Business

**There's more to the brothers Donquixote than either ever told/ a perfect match made 'tween red and gold...**

* * *

That Man hadn't changed much in the time Law had been free of him. Same ugly pink coat, same garish purple glasses, and same ridiculously overdone throne.

But he had changed.

For one thing, he wasn't smiling as Law came marching into his chamber, wishing he didn't know this was a room reserved for meetings only among Family. People not Family weren't allowed to get this close to the King of Dressrosa, despite how easily he could defend himself. 'It wouldn't do to give the citizens ideas' and all that. The lack of a smile was more frightening when his once-father-figure inclined his head in the brisk, businesslike way that meant he was treating this like any other Shichibukai's visit.

Being treated like an adult on equal footing with Doflamingo, of all people, was enough to set all of Law's hair on end in warning.

"I understand," the King began, his voice smooth, "you have some business to attend to which cannot wait, concerning matters entirely outside the petty matters on which we usually clash."

Law's already-tense shoulders tightened further. "They're not petty matters," he spat, knowing already he sounded like a petulant child instead of a grown man with plans for vengeance and boiling over with rage. "But what I came here for is more important, yes. And it can't wait."

Though he said it like a challenge, the string man didn't take the bait.

"Cora has already informed me of events. I suppose you're here to- hrm, let's see...I sincerely doubt you want to know the particulars about how he resurrected you," Doflamingo meandered, pretending like he was only thinking on it just now, "or that you much care how or why he can only bring you back twice for that 'three chances' thing we warned you about. And I don't think you want him to stop watching over you, unless you're concerned he's been spying on you when you take someone to bed but-"

"You KNOW I'm here for you to tell me how the fuck you can talk to him," Law burst out, patience gone. "You can talk to him, and I can't, and I want to know HOW and if I can do it too."

There was a rustle in Doflamingo's feathers, but the man waved it away.

"You cannot, and it's none of your business," the blond told him, finally standing. His voice was almost bored, as if Law wasn't the first to ask him this and wouldn't be the last, but there was an undercurrent in it Law could hear that sounded almost like he was being teased. If he hadn't spent a few years growing up around the man, he'd never be able to catch it, but it sounded almost exactly like Rocinante's when he was trying to straight-face a joke.

"And if that was all you wanted, this audience is over," Doflamingo continued, turning to go. His long legs would have him out of the room in mere moments, and Law knew once he was out of the audience chamber, there was no returning to the subject for at least a day. But there was one more card Law could use, one more move up his sleeve. He just hated to use it- and knew damn well that's what Doflamingo was counting on. So he pursed his lips, swallowed hard, and played his hand.

"I am Family, and it is my business," he felt as though he was saying it from a distance, his mouth moving and the sound projecting from his throat without him actually being the one to do it, even knowing it was definitely him calling upon that old, old rule, that Tradition of the Donquixote Family. And knowing that having reclaimed his place as one of the Family, Doflamingo no longer could exclude him from what he needed. The Family Patriarch must provide.

And knowing, deep down in his soul, it also meant he would never, ever be able to escape the shadow of Doflamingo Donquixote again.


	6. Smoke and Mirrors

Law didn't know what he expected, honestly. To be slapped across the room for daring to claim he was still part of the Family, after actively fleeing, working to destroy it from the outside, and joining the Shichibukai to make trouble for the Family Head, maybe. A slim possibility of Doflamingo welcoming him with cheerfully open arms. An arrogant speech about how Doffy always knew he'd be back for the Family's power and protection. Maybe even being killed on the spot.

Out of all the possibilities, none happened. Instead, Doflamingo turned around, and leaned on the edge of his throne while he studied Law up and down like he was some fascinating new pet. Then he opened his mouth and issued a challenge Law had only ever heard him make once.

"And what proof do you offer, to claim you are Family?"

In an instant, it seemed to crash down on Law what he'd really done. He'd proclaimed, to the Captain of the Donquixote Pirates and Family, that he, the runaway, still maintained his Family ties and the right to demand to be brought into Family business. It was his trump card, playing on what Cora-san and Doffy had always insisted would always be his to claim, but he had hated, and sabotaged, and actively worked on destroying the minor ranks of the Family for years. So Doffy was demanding he prove he was still entitled to be considered to have ever been part of the Family at all.

Doffy only did that to people who had forced his hand, and he hated it.

But he only got one chance to answer, and he swallowed hard as he considered. There really wasn't much, these last twelve years, that could label him with the Family and not against it. Except for one thing...

"That Rocinante Donquixote, your twin, saved my life," he said quietly, lifting his chin with pride, "not once, but twice, both as a child and an adult. And in some form or fashion, Cora-san is still part of your Family. How much he loves me, and I love him, is my proof that I retain the right to claim my Donquixote Family ties."

Doflamingo studied him for several long, silent seconds, and Kikoku was already whispering in his ear to draw her, he would surely rule against them, before the blond grinned his signature smile. He gestured for Law to follow, pronouncing, "Proof enough."

Together they strode at the blond's ground-eating pace into what looked like some sort of small workshop. It had a long wooden worktable against one wall, an assortment of papers, lists, wanted posters, and maps pinned and taped all over the wall above the table. On top of the table were assortments of instruments he seemed to recall seeing before, other places, but couldn't pinpoint what they were or their use. He resisted the urge to poke at some sort of rotating instrument with a sharp spike at one end and a metal ball on the other to balance it, despite the scientist in him wanting to know everything.

"There," Doflamingo told him, casually folding himself into the plush armchair in front of the bed Law had just realized was there, rumpled and messy. He must not let the cleaning staff in here. But he looked where his former second father pointed, and found an enormous, ornate silver-framed mirror in the corner. It was even taller than Doflamingo himself, clearly meant to be floor-length for someone of his gargantuan size, but other than that the tattooed man couldn't find anything extraordinary about it for several long minutes.

Then he realized that, in the mirror, Doflamingo wasn't in the chair. In fact, Doflamingo wasn't in the mirror at all! He turned, but no, Doffy was still right there, one leg propped on the other knee, rolling his knobby ankle and watching Law. Like he was waiting for something. What? What was off about this mirror? Law studied his own face, searching for the most minute differences, but no. The same dark circles under bitter, tired gold eyes, the scraggly goatee that clung to his chin, two shiny golden hoops in each ear... he looked the same in this mirror as he did in any other. So why wasn't Doflamingo in it?

Doflamingo smiled, his head turning as though he was following someone's path across the room. Law saw it out of the corner of his eye, and looked to where the 'invisible person' should have been inside the mirror- and lost all breath.

The scowling, painted face of his first adopted father, Corazon Rocinante Donquixote, stared out at him from the glass.


	7. Every Question

"Cor-"

 _No,_ Rocinante cut him off from the mirror, the sign the sharpest slash of his hand Law had ever seen. _You, you little, IDIOT! You don't get to do this, you don't get to just come in here and pretend that you haven't done the stupidest thing in your life to be standing here right now! And you DON'T get to use that name to try and make me less angry at you!_

"It does work though," drawled Doffy from the chair behind him, and Law watched the brown eyes cut to his brother without losing an ounce of anger.

 _YOU STAY OUT OF THIS,_ Cora demanded, showing his teeth.

"It's not stupid," Law protested, feeling for the second time today that he was a child of ten again. "It's not stupid, and, and I know you're angry, but-"

 _But you just had to, I know,_ Cora cut him off again, the angles of his eyes softening. His frown remained.

 _But it was stupid and you know it. You came here, into the den of a man you'd made your enemy, and reclaimed your Family status. We both know what you've done to get to this spot, in front of this mirror. And we both know what it really means._

"I have to know," Law lowered his eyes, so he didn't have to see the disappointment on Cora-san's face anymore. "Even with the price, I have to know. You're dead, but not really dead? And Doffy can talk to you. I can too now, here. If I make a mirror like this one-"

"I have one that will fit in your Captain's Quarters."

Law turned to Doffy then, arrested by the solemn tone of his voice. There was no hidden laughter in that statement, not even the slightest tinge of amusement.

"I had it commissioned at the same time you had your sub built. Your shipbuilder was easy to bribe," Doffy shrugged, but he still wasn't grinning and it made Law nervous.

"It was supposed to be a gift."

Law squinted at him, nearly hissing. "A gift for me? When did you think you'd give it to me?"

"On the day the sub was finished," and there was the touch of humor, but it was because the day the sub had been finished, Law had gotten it quietly loaded with supplies to last him as long as possible and disappeared to start plotting his revenge. Law guessed that the 'launching party' Doffy had planned for it's maiden voyage was when he was supposed to get and install the mirror.

Law shook his head and settled his shoulders. "That's irrelevant now. What I need now is answers."

Doffy's grin split his face, and from the corner of his eye Law saw Cora's frown distort his cheek scars. Humor and Tragedy masks made of living flesh. He hated when they did that, it never meant anything good.

"And so you shall have your answers. But I warn you now," Doffy giggled, standing from his chair, "you're really not going to like them!"


	8. Has An Answer

"It doesn't _matter_ if I don't like the answers," Law pronounced, scowling. But Doflamingo was giggling again, which was far less alarming than the solemn seriousness he'd been displaying earlier. He didn't LIKE it when Doffy wasn't laughing. It made his skin crawl so much more than when he was.

"Very well. I suppose I'd better start with the question you've already asked," The Family Head said, pointing dramatically with one finger at Cora in the mirror.

"He's dead, but not really dead? The answer is: he is, in fact, really dead."

"But he's right there," Law burst out, gesturing wildly to the mirror. "He's- you're right here, you can talk to me," he turned to his adoptive father's face, searching for a better answer.

 _And I am dead,_ Cora reiterated, still frowning. _I am dead and there is no bringing me back. Unlike everyone else in the world, I have only ever had one chance to live my life. And I did, to the fullest._ He smiled then, that big grin that still make Law's heart jump into his throat and stole his voice.

"Don't give him a trauma flashback, Cora, that's not nice," Doffy sighed, making Law jump. "Do keep in mind the last time he saw you smile like that you were sticking him in a treasure chest and about to die."

The smile dropped immediately, the younger twin rubbing the back of his neck. _Oh, I'm- I'm sorry. I forgot, since he plastered it on everything._

"No-! I mean, no, it's fine, I'd- rather see it than not," Law responded hurriedly, shooting a poisonous look over his shoulder that made Doffy put his hands up in mock-surrender. "So, next question, why do YOU only get one shot?"

"Because there was no one to revive him," Doffy said, at the same time Cora Signed, _Because that was my destiny._

Law got the peculiar experience of watching Doffy giving the angry glare for a change, and Cora the mocking smile. Something about that statement had-

Doffy came up out of the chair with a dangerous air around him, and Law hurriedly got from between the brothers as he started to growl.

"Destiny my ass," the elder spat, his shoulders pushing upward in classic tense, angry body language, back hunching up. "It was not _destiny._ It was that the last person who had your job couldn't be fucking bothered to give you all the years you were entitled to! They just wanted to retire already and oh look, how _convenient for them,_ their replacement is already dead!"

 _It was my time to take up the mantle, Aniki._ Cora was intractable. There was no getting him to change his mind, Law could see that, it was the exact same intractability that he saw in Doffy's face when the man had made up his mind not to be swayed.

"Like HELL it was!" Doffy's face had the exact same expression: it was eerie how much they were perfect reflections of each other in that moment.

Law decided to break this up before it turned into a screaming match and Cora disappeared from the mirror to make Doffy calm himself, since that's how these fights had always ended when both of them were alive and it was infinitely more difficult to escape Doffy's ship.

"What job? Why does he have to be dead to do it?"

Both looked at him, and unlike when he was ten (he had felt like a child way too many times today), he kept his back straight and his eyes on their faces.

"We're Avatars," Doffy said, after a heavy silence. "Life and Death." He gestured, the motion abruptly tired, at the mirror. "Every world in every dimension has to have both. We just happen to be the ones for our world."

 _It has to be twins, too,_ Cora continued, pausing to press one hand against the mirror, then his whole body, moved at the pain in Doffy's voice. They never had been able to resist comforting each other, no matter how upset they'd been.

Law understood in that second, that whatever being an Avatar meant, it was in no way a gift. Twins, who had been each other's most important support for as long as the two had been alive, and no longer allowed to offer the human comfort of touch. And it apparently always had to be twins.

"That's crueler than anything I've seen you do, Doffy, and I've seen your parasite strings," Law said softly. "Is this what drives your sadism? Being forced to be the Avatar of life, and unable to even bring your twin back to you?"

Both them stopped, then looked at Law, heads tilted to the side in identical birdlike confusion.

"Life? What on earth made you think-"

 _That HE would be the Life Avatar?!_


End file.
